THIS IPHONE 3GS IS REPORTEDLY the world’s most expensive mobile phone, valued at $3,164,000. It was commissioned by an anonymous Australian businessman in the gold mining industry, and was designed by Stuart Hughes of Liverpool, England. It took 10 months to design and create, according to LikeCool.

> The case was created from 271 grams (9.7 ounces) of 22k gold.

> The front bezel houses 136 flawless color F diamonds, which total 68 carats.

> The rear logo has 53 flawless diamonds totaling 1 carat.

> The front navigation button is home to one rare 7.1 carat diamond.

> The chest which houses this unique handset is made from a single 7kg (15.4 lb.) block of Kashmir gold granite whose inside is lined with top grain leather.

Traveling along Interstate 15 through Nevada reminds me of when I was a kid in the ’70’s, and my family would travel from California to Utah each summer to visit my grandma, in paneled station wagons like the one shown above. This time in 2009, I was thinking about how little transportation has changed.

With all the remarkable advances over the last 40 years in technology, bioscience, and manufacturing, we still travel across the country on asphalt roads and rubber tires, at about the same speed, in six or eight-cylinder cars that are about the same size.

We still stop along the way at fillin’ stations for fossil fuel and treats. We still fill the soda cups with a little extra ice to crunch on while passing the time. Even gas pumps look about the same. Kids still ask “are we there yet?” And, the trip still takes almost exactly the same amount of time.

The only real differences have to do with technology—kids watching YouTube videos on their iPhones. Oh...  And one more difference...  We wear seatbelts.

IT MAY NOT BE MUCH TO LOOK AT, IN TERMS OF DESIGN AESTHETICS, but the power in Google’s new Image Swirl is absolutely remarkable for designers, writers, and concept guys like me.

It’s an experimental feature in Google Labs which is based on new computer vision research to cluster similar images into representative groups in a visual, exploratory interface.

I entered the word “pain” (shown below) and was led down many visual avenues. Prior to having tools like these, creating “message trees” took a great deal of time and effort. The Visual Thesaurus has been around for a while, and is helpful. However, it really isn’t very “visual” because it only uses text to create contextual relationships. Google’s Image Swirl uses images.

I love this new tool. Check it out >here.

TOSHIBA AND GREY LONDON COLLABORATED to film "the world's highest commercial," shot 98,000 feet above Nevada's Black Rock desert. To capture the spot's footage, two Toshiba hi-def IK-HR1S video cameras and a lightweight chair were suspended from a high altitude helium balloon and floated into space until the chair exploded from extreme atmospheric pressure at 98,268 feet.

Based on recently released information by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Cactus Flight 1549 Accident Reconstruction (exosphere3d.com) contains a very detailed technical description accompanied with various visualization animations of US Airways Flight 1549, or better, how it ditched in the Hudson River earlier this year.

ORIGINALLY SUGGESTED AS A CENTER PIECE FOR THE LONDON OLYMPICS VILLAGE, the digital Cloud will comprise thin and lightweight mesh towers 120 meters tall and stabilized by a series of metal cables. The towers will be dampened by a similar technology to that used in skyscrapers in Japan to resist earthquakes, so they would not be affected by the wind. Above the towers will be a series of interconnected inflatable plastic bubbles. Apart from displaying images and data, the Cloud would also function as a park and an observation deck. People would be able to reach the tops of the towers via ramps, stairs and elevators.

The designers of the Cloud plan to take the unusual step of funding the installation from millions of small donations from members of the public. One of the architects, Carlo Ratti from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, said the project was about ordinary people gathering resources together to raise the Cloud. The design is flexible enough to allow it to be adjusted to the funds available, so the number and amount of donations will determine the size of the Cloud.

The Cloud design was originally submitted to a competition set up by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and has been shortlisted. The competition aimed to attract entries for a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park that would be a legacy for London's east end. The winner of the competition has not yet been announced.

Regardless of the outcome of the competition, the Cloud's architects and engineers, who include author Umberto Eco, and engineers from Arup, a global engineering and consulting company, have decided to publish details of their concept. The structure is influenced by the work of a German artist famous for large inflatable structures, Tomas Saraceno.

WHAT TURNS SOMETHING ORDINARY INTO SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY? The magic is found in things that are first functional, and secondarily clever or sexy. Take these barcodes, for example. Each is a work of art—yet, first and foremost, each is fully functional. That’s the twist that makes them both extraordinary and memorable.

My son and I were talking today about the appeal of Apple products. Their sleek appearance is pleasing, but secondary to their functionality and to what they enable me to do.

The challenge of innovative thinking is to make something as appealing as it is functional. And, vice versa.

What do you think?

I AM A BIG SETH GODIN FAN. Actually, that’s a gross understatement. I am a Seth Godin stargazing junkie. I want to be Seth when I grow up. I look forward to his posts each day.

Below is his post from this morning in its entirety. It requires no set up or comment on my part. Enjoy.

This is so cool:  Because we only look at things we want to look at, only talk about things worth talking about, the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.

Even though we’re at the tail end of the great recession, think about all the cool stuff in your life. Not just stuff you can buy, but experiences, works of art, innovations of all kinds... the bar has been raised for what you need to do to be noticed, and the market is responding.

Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than I can remember. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it. You can't say, “but I need to make a fortune instead,” because that's not happening right now. So you might as well join the people who can say, “I love doing this.”

I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN THE POWER OF MUSIC in setting the mood for doing business. Back in the early 80’s I opened a small, intimate gourmet restaurant called Hines’ Mansion. After I sold it, it became a luxury bed & breakfast. Before we owned it, it was a different restaurant and I distinctly remember the music that the previous owner played while people were dining. It was a popular “soft hits” FM station where bad commercial spots constantly interrupted the dining mood. I could never understand that.

After my wife and I bought the restaurant and reopened it, the first thing we did was purchase a high-end reel to reel tape deck and recorded many hours of hand-selected music tracks—all recorded from vinyl records. The sounds were amazing and transformed the dining experience.

Here at our agency, Lava7, I’ve had many clients ask about the background music that’s played here. Of course today there’s no reel-to-reel deck—just an iPod.